Inside the Beltway: Rumsfeld rule for Obama

“There is a wider gap in opinions about the NRA’s influence between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans than in December. In the current survey, 77 percent of liberal Democrats say the NRA has too much influence over gun control laws, up from 59 percent in December. By contrast, more conservative Republicans say the NRA has the right amount of influence than did so in December — 58 percent now, 46 percent then,” the poll says.

THE U.S. REPUTATION

Do we care? A BBC World Service poll of 26,000 people in 25 countries rates Germany as the most popular nation on the planet. But the respondents were fairly finicky, only granting the nation a 59 percent favorability rating. The win is a reward to Germany “for diligent diplomacy,” surmises BBC analyst Stephen Evans.

And the U.S.? The behemoth BBC poll found Canada is in second place, followed by Britain, Japan, France, the European Union, Brazil, the U.S., China and South Korea. The U.S. favorability rating is, incidentally, 45 percent. Iran is at the bottom of the list, with a 15 percent rating.

• 56 percent of U.S. voters say it would be “better” if the U.S. went back to the health care system that was in place in 2009;85 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of conservatives, 30 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of liberals agree.

• 34 percent of voters overall say it would be better to leave the new health care law in place; 7 percent of Republicans, 18 percent of conservatives, 61 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of liberals agree.